[Cause]

I have been on the fence about buying a car for a while now. Still am. Trumps tartifs are not helping. However I have realized that regardless of tarrifs Americas car options are strange.

The cheapest car in South Africa is the Suzuki s presso. Approx 9500 dollars final price.

The cheapest car in USA is the Nissan Versa S at 18300 dollars
And since this is America this excludes sales tax.


Now I’m probably not in the market for the cheapest car in either market but that too me is a very interesting fact. In the USA the demand for all wheel drive vehicles that drive in snow is a factor but otherwise the market is clearly constrained by design to keep prices higher on average.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Cause, on 06 April 2025 - 06:13 PM, said:

I have been on the fence about buying a car for a while now. Still am. Trumps tartifs are not helping. However I have realized that regardless of tarrifs Americas car options are strange.

The cheapest car in South Africa is the Suzuki s presso. Approx 9500 dollars final price.

The cheapest car in USA is the Nissan Versa S at 18300 dollars
And since this is America this excludes sales tax.


Now I'm probably not in the market for the cheapest car in either market but that too me is a very interesting fact. In the USA the demand for all wheel drive vehicles that drive in snow is a factor but otherwise the market is clearly constrained by design to keep prices higher on average.

Now you've inspired me to look up the cheapest Chinese car (in USD)... at least as of the article below it was apparently 4387.22 yuan = $603.63 presently. Available over Alibaba (but of course not in the United States...).

The Cheapest Chinese Cars That You Can Buy in 2025

For price of the cheapest car in the USA you could buy 30 of the cheapest Chinese car... oh wait probably even more than 30 because they give you an extra discount if you buy in bulk. (Of course the really important question is: who would win in a fight?---one Nissan or 30 KEYU's? ... that might be one of the safest current uses of true full self-driving.)

[Maark Abbott]

Tipped my thumb cutting onion. OW

[Abyss]

Cause, on 06 April 2025 - 06:13 PM, said:

I have been on the fence about buying a car for a while now. Still am. Trumps tartifs are not helping. However I have realized that regardless of tarrifs Americas car options are strange.

The cheapest car in South Africa is the Suzuki s presso. Approx 9500 dollars final price.

The cheapest car in USA is the Nissan Versa S at 18300 dollars
And since this is America this excludes sales tax.


Now I'm probably not in the market for the cheapest car in either market but that too me is a very interesting fact. In the USA the demand for all wheel drive vehicles that drive in snow is a factor but otherwise the market is clearly constrained by design to keep prices higher on average.

used cars?

[QuickTidal]

FFS it's NOT a real dire wolf.


It's so annoying to see it presented as that.


10k year old direwolf DNA is crumbly bits at this point...so they've used a CRISPER-CAS9 to present a decent model to fill-in the gaps, and create an embryo and implanted it into a normal wolf mother to bring to term. It is a best guess direwolf from crumbly bits of DNA still around 10k years later, and an algorithm guessing at the rest.


Make no mistake, it's a wonder of science...but it's not a fucking extinct animal brought back to life. It's not like direwolf DNA was hanging out mostly complete inside amber like in JP...the way it's being presented in the media enrages me.

[worry]

Call me when they invent a fire wolf.

[amphibian]

Best I can do is a Yelawolf.

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

QuickTidal, on 09 April 2025 - 12:38 PM, said:

FFS it's NOT a real dire wolf.

It's so annoying to see it presented as that.

10k year old direwolf DNA is crumbly bits at this point...so they've used a CRISPER-CAS9 to present a decent model to fill-in the gaps, and create an embryo and implanted it into a normal wolf mother to bring to term. It is a best guess direwolf from crumbly bits of DNA still around 10k years later, and an algorithm guessing at the rest.

Make no mistake, it's a wonder of science...but it's not a fucking extinct animal brought back to life. It's not like direwolf DNA was hanging out mostly complete inside amber like in JP...the way it's being presented in the media enrages me.

The fact that George RR Martin is an investor (along with Peter Jackson, reportedly) and has the big splash photo posing with one of the pups (and the female being called Khaleesi) also makes me think they made them white to cash in on the GOT link a bit (I highly doubt dire wolves would have been white save for the usual genetic rare genetic mutations, though happy to be proved wrong). It makes the whole thing feel rather circus-like.

I don't claim to have a solid grasp of the genetics, but from what I've been reading of the criticism they've essentially altered grey wolf genetics and substituted in some dire wolf ones, on the premise the grey wolf is the closest living ancestor (which appears to be disputed). So I think it's a hyrbrid grey wolf dressed up as a best guess at what they think a dire wolf would have been, sans the white coat bit mentioned previously.

It's a wonder, correct, but I'm not sure I grasp the point. The world of the dire wolf is a very long way from the world of today - they specialised in hunting the megafauna that was alive at the time, none of which remains. Are they going to be zoo animals? The company are also supposedly working on mammoth and thylacine fossils too, though had the foresight to admit that any "mammoth" would be in name only (absolutely no clarity on why they are stating the dire wolf is an actual dire wolf, short of hype).

There was a nod in the Times article to the fact the technology could be used to help currently endangered species, and if so then that's great... but that's not the headline. The headline is "revived dire wolf" which isn't a dire wolf at all.

This post has been edited by TheRetiredBridgeburner: 09 April 2025 - 01:52 PM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

I wish the S&P500 would hurry up and crash by 25% (below its February high) so I can cash in on CAOS and reinvest it. Now absurdly it's been rising again (the S&P500, that is, not CAOS, which ought to be ascendant... but markets are unpredictable). Did put in an extended hours limit order to sell but set it at the higher end of the range---the problem is that it's going to shoot up when it hits 25%, but I'm not sure by how much exactly; if I set the limit order too low I could miss out on a big pay-out, but if I set it too high it may not trigger at all, and the market could bounce back and not return (before the deadline of April 16th, 60 days from the high).

Here's hoping I notice the email alert I've set, and can whip out some internet-connected device ASAP.

Nice to see my Chinese stocks surging today though... oh wait, no it's not, I want to buy more of those. Bleh. Same goes for my non-Chinese AI stocks and gold. Well, hopefully during the next leg down of the crash gold will go down again too from people covering margin calls (if they haven't already deleveraged enough for it not to make any difference...).

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 09 April 2025 - 02:06 PM

[QuickTidal]

Azath Vitr (D, on 09 April 2025 - 02:06 PM, said:

Now absurdly it's been rising again

The fabled Econ 101 Dead Cat Bounce.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

QuickTidal, on 09 April 2025 - 02:13 PM, said:

Azath Vitr (D, on 09 April 2025 - 02:06 PM, said:

Now absurdly it's been rising again

The fabled Econ 101 Dead Cat Bounce.

Yeah, this is like the third or fourth big one since the start of the crash. Decaying dead cat yo-yo. Probably largely fueled by hopium that Trump will relent.

A lot of people were certain after market close Friday that the market was obviously going to keep dropping and so leveraged inverse ETFs (which basically short the market on a daily basis---their daily rise/fall is essentially the inverse of the daily up/down % of what they're shorting, for example the S&P500, and they get killed by day-to-day volatility decay, partly because X% of a smaller number is a smaller number than X% of a larger number, so it takes less money for the stock you're shorting to go up by X% than it does for the stock to go down by X%) would be the way to go... but I thought it would probably be choppy, and could reverse at any time if Trump backs off (slim chance, but who knows, it's possible). They have been disappointed (so far). Though checking it now I see that SQQQ (leveraged inverse QQQ) is only down slightly since market close Friday, and BTAL is only down about 1.7%.

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 09 April 2025 - 02:37 PM

[QuickTidal]

Azath Vitr (D, on 09 April 2025 - 02:28 PM, said:

Probably largely fueled by hopium that Trump will relent.

No, not relent, but we will get to watch him deal with a China who does not give a fuck and will outlast him on this front. He's playing a stupid game with his biggest trade partner, and I assure you that not only is China wealthy enough to outlast him, but a country under a regime like the CCP is going to be much more used to dealing with any hardships this might create than snowlfakey, "I want my stuff" consumerist Americans.

He's fucked if he keeps pushing.


All the dollar stores in the USA that every braindead hick shops at just got 2x+ as expensive and many of them will just close up shop...

[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 09 April 2025 - 12:38 PM, said:

FFS it's NOT a real dire wolf.


It's so annoying to see it presented as that.


10k year old direwolf DNA is crumbly bits at this point...so they've used a CRISPER-CAS9 to present a decent model to fill-in the gaps, and create an embryo and implanted it into a normal wolf mother to bring to term. It is a best guess direwolf from crumbly bits of DNA still around 10k years later, and an algorithm guessing at the rest.


Make no mistake, it's a wonder of science...but it's not a fucking extinct animal brought back to life. It's not like direwolf DNA was hanging out mostly complete inside amber like in JP...the way it's being presented in the media enrages me.

I've seen this movie/read this story, it always always always ends badly for the humans.

TheRetiredBridgeburner, on 09 April 2025 - 01:45 PM, said:

The fact that George RR Martin is an investor (along with Peter Jackson, reportedly) and has the big splash photo posing with one of the pups (and the female being called Khaleesi) also makes me think they made them white to cash in on the GOT link a bit (I highly doubt dire wolves would have been white save for the usual genetic rare genetic mutations, though happy to be proved wrong). It makes the whole thing feel rather circus-like.
...

I kind of low key love that they go GRRM and possibly Peter Jackson in on this. SO much science gets ignored if it doesn't have a sexy pop culture element, so why shouldn't they bring in the guys who put big frikkin wolves on screen?

worry, on 09 April 2025 - 12:52 PM, said:

Call me when they invent a fire wolf.

Fire Mares have priority.

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

Abyss, on 09 April 2025 - 02:50 PM, said:

TheRetiredBridgeburner, on 09 April 2025 - 01:45 PM, said:

The fact that George RR Martin is an investor (along with Peter Jackson, reportedly) and has the big splash photo posing with one of the pups (and the female being called Khaleesi) also makes me think they made them white to cash in on the GOT link a bit (I highly doubt dire wolves would have been white save for the usual genetic rare genetic mutations, though happy to be proved wrong). It makes the whole thing feel rather circus-like.

I kind of low key love that they go GRRM and possibly Peter Jackson in on this. SO much science gets ignored if it doesn't have a sexy pop culture element, so why shouldn't they bring in the guys who put big frikkin wolves on screen?

Hadn't thought of it that way - it's a good point!

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

QuickTidal, on 09 April 2025 - 02:45 PM, said:

All the dollar stores in the USA that every braindead hick shops at just got 2x+ as expensive and many of them will just close up shop...

Quote

Why is [Trump] doing this? His commerce secretary explained on television this past Sunday: "The army of millions and millions of human beings screwing in little screws to make iPhones—that kind of thing is going to come to America."

American workers—or, more likely, American robots—will do the job instead.

One question: Where will the screws come from?

iPhones are held together by a special kind of five-headed screw[...] almost all made in China. [...] the screw-making machines are themselves built of steel and other metals, which[...] are now tariffed. [...]

At every stage of the industrial process, American companies will pay more for the components they need. And so it will be for the makers of those components, and the makers of the components' components, and so on, in an infinite regression of self-defeat.

[...] Imagine that the United States somehow survives the immediate crisis and arrives at a place where Americans use American-made mobile devices sealed by tiny "Made in the USA" screws. [...] inflict[ing] permanently higher costs on every U.S. business that uses mobile devices, while pricing them out of world markets in turn. The whole U.S. economy will run slower than its competitors, like a sprinter who volunteers to wear a weighted vest that none of the other runners has to carry.

Trump Has a Screw Loose About Tariffs - The Atlantic

Pawnshops may do relatively well though, as they tend to in recessions... I invested a little bit in EZPW (pawn shop operator in the US and Latin America).

[worry]

I've done something very similar, putting all my savings in Chumcoin, the only cryptocurrency endorsed by Chumlee from Pawn Stars.

[QuickTidal]

Considering Trump's economic guy Peter Navarro has been discovered to be citing a "great economist" named Ron Vara...which is just an anagram of his last name...he's referencing himself as the great Tariff mind....and wasnt he in jail for a time too? I'm not at all surprised that THIS is the guy who came up with all this shit and hasn't thought it through at all.

[worry]

He was indeed jailed a few months for skipping out on a congressional subpoena re: January 6. Which might actually be why his star has risen within the Trump camp. He was originally brought into the fold last time by Jared Kushner who found him by browsing anti-China books on Amazon (not a joke, and not even a simplification).

[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 09 April 2025 - 04:23 PM, said:

Considering Trump's economic guy Peter Navarro has been discovered to be citing a "great economist" named Ron Vara...which is just an anagram of his last name...he's referencing himself as the great Tariff mind....and wasnt he in jail for a time too? I'm not at all surprised that THIS is the guy who came up with all this shit and hasn't thought it through at all.

Navarro did 4 months in club fed for refusing a suboena to appear before a congressional committee. The Ron Vara story broke back in 2019, and it seems he didn't rely on any of that silliness in backing the current silliness, so kudos to Trump's team for figuring out that might have gone bad (worse) when assembling their cast of characters.

[worry]

These posts should probably go in the Happy thread though since it's always nice to see loyalty rewarded in this day and age.